Hair clippers with flexing electrically adjustable blades

Abstract

A flex clipper provides a feature to help the cutting blade set float more effortlessly by adjusting automatically to the contours of a client's head to prevent getting stuck and causing cuts and irritation to the scalp. The hair clippers preferably also uses a self-contained motor-driven adjustment mechanism to adjust the relative position of the stationary and reciprocating blades of a common type of blade set. Two momentary switches operable by the thumb of the hand holding the clipper afford a barber total automatic adjustment with the clipper itself in an on or off condition.

I claim: 
     
       1. A flexing hair clipper comprising:
 a main housing; 
 a blade set module separate from the main housing, the blade set module having a blade set including an adjustable comb plate and a movably reciprocating cutter blade, a crank mechanism for driving the reciprocating blade, and a comb plate adjuster motor assembly for adjusting the comb plate for hair cutting length adjustment; 
 the main housing having a power supply, a cutter blade drive motor for driving the crank mechanism, switches, at least one user adjustable blade control in communication with the switches, and an electric drive module for the comb plate adjuster motor; 
 the blade set module and the main housing are connected by a flexible compliant conduit coupling, the flexible compliant conduit coupling permits flexing of the blade set relative to the main housing a predetermined amount in any direction so that the blade set automatically adjusts to contours of a user's head to reduce a possibility of the blade set getting stick in hairs of the user's head and to reduce a possibility of cuts and irritation to the user's head; and 
 the flexible compliant conduit coupling substantially resisting relative rotational movements between the blade set and the main housing, said resistance of the flexible compliant conduit coupling insuring control of the blade set by keeping a cutting edge of the reciprocating cutter blade aligned with a top surface of the main house when in a rest position, and the flexible compliant conduit coupling substantially resisting a driving torque of the cutter blade drive motor. 
 
     
     
       2. The flexing hair clipper as in  claim 1  wherein said flexible compliant conduit coupling is a bellows. 
     
     
       3. The flexible hair clipper as in  claim 2  wherein said bellows is made of a thermoplastic elastomer (TPE). 
     
     
       4. The flexible hair clipper as in  claim 2  wherein said bellows is made of rubber. 
     
     
       5. The flexible hair clipper as in  claim 2  wherein said bellows is made of a plastic. 
     
     
       6. The flexible hair clipper as in  claim 5  wherein said plastics is nylon. 
     
     
       7. The flexible hair clipper as in  claim 5  wherein said plastic is polypropylene. 
     
     
       8. The flexing hair clipper as in  claim 2  wherein the bellows is made of at least one thermoplastic elastomer and rubber and wherein the bellows includes an overall length, a diameter, and convolutions. 
     
     
       9. The flexing hair clipper as in  claim 2  wherein the bellows has an attachment collar on each end for attaching the bellows to the main housing and for attaching the bellows to the blade set module. 
     
     
       10. The flexing hair clipper as in  claim 1  wherein said flexible compliant conduit coupling is an elastomeric tubing. 
     
     
       11. The flexible hair clippers as in  claim 10  wherein said elastomeric tubing is a foamed elastomer. 
     
     
       12. The flexing hair clipper as in  claim 3  wherein the elastomeric tubing is made of foamed rubber. 
     
     
       13. The flexing hair clipper as in  claim 10  wherein the elastomeric tubing has an attachment collar on each end for attaching the elastomeric tubing to the main housing and for attaching the elastomeric tubing to the blade set module. 
     
     
       14. The flexing hair clipper as in  claim 1  further comprising a flexible compliant motor coupling flexibly connecting the cutter blade drive motor with the crank mechanism and with the comb plate adjuster motor assembly via the flexible compliant conduit coupling and the flexible compliant motor couple follows and conforms to the flexing of the flexible compliant conduit coupling. 
     
     
       15. The flexing hair clipper as in  claim 14  further wherein the flexible compliant motor coupling is a metal bellows coupling. 
     
     
       16. The flexing hair clipper as in  claim 15  wherein said metal bellows coupling has a diameter which fits inside a hollow interior of said flexible compliant conduit. 
     
     
       17. The flexing hair clipper as in  claim 16  further comprising a powering and control cable connecting the comb plate adjuster motor assembly with the electric drive module via the hollow interior of the flexible compliant conduit coupling. 
     
     
       18. The flexible hair clipper as in  claim 1  wherein said at least one user adjustable blade control is a thumb operable switch contact member. 
     
     
       19. The flexible hair clipper as in  claim 1  wherein said at least one user adjustable blade control is a pair of tap buttons. 
     
     
       20. The flexible hair clipper of  claim 1  wherein said comb plate adjuster motor assembly is a stepper motor driving a lead screw. 
     
     
       21. The flexible hair clipper as in  claim 1  wherein said at least one user adjustable blade control is a thumb/finger operable wheel. 
     
     
       22. The flexing hair clipper as in  claim 1  wherein the flexible compliant conduit coupling is a spring coupling. 
     
     
       23. A flexing hair clipper comprising:
 a main housing; 
 a blade set module separate from the main housing, the blade set module having a cutting blade set including a comb plate and a movably reciprocating cutter blade, and a crank mechanism for driving the reciprocating blade; 
 the main housing having a power supply, a cutter blade drive motor for driving the crank mechanism, and an on/off switch; 
 the blade set module and the main housing are connected by a flexible compliant conduit coupling, the flexible compliant conduit coupling permits flexing of the blade set relative to the main housing a predetermined amount in any direction so that the blade set automatically adjusts to contours of a user's head to reduce a possibility of the blade set getting stick in hairs of the user's head and to reduce a possibility of cuts and irritation to the user's head; and 
 the flexible compliant conduit coupling substantially resisting relative rotational movements between the blade set and the main housing, said resistance of the flexible compliant conduit coupling insuring control of the blade set by keeping a cutting edge of the reciprocating cutter blade aligned with a top surface of the main house when in a rest position, and the flexible compliant conduit coupling substantially resisting a driving torque of the cutter blade drive motor. 
 
     
     
       24. The flexing hair clipper as in  claim 23  wherein the flexible compliant conduit coupling is a spring coupling. 
     
     
       25. The flexing hair clipper as in  claim 23  wherein the flexible compliant conduit coupling is a bellows. 
     
     
       26. The flexing hair clipper as in  claim 23  wherein the flexible compliant conduit coupling is an elastomeric tubing.